Weekend at Nagsasa Cove: Getting There

Nagsasa Cove is one of the famous destinations at Pundaquit San Antonio, Zambales aside from Anawangin Cove, Capones and Camara.  There's another cove here but I forgot its name.  It is said to be the farthest among these destinations.

I've been to Anawangin, Capones and Camara last year but we didn't camp out in Anawangin Cove, instead we stayed in one of the accommodations available in Pundaquit.  You can read my blog post about it here.  This time, since more and more people are raving about Nagsasa Cove, claiming it to be better than Anawangin Cove, my friends decided to visit Nagsasa Cove and stay overnight there by camping.

Panoramic view of Nagsasa Cove from the sea

Planning on this trip, we prefer convenience, thus we searched for an all in package that will take us to Nagsasa Cove at the same time tour the other coves for my first timer friends' pleasure.  Most of the tour packages require at least 10 pax for the trip to be economical.  The more, the better, the cheaper.  My officemate, who had been to Nagsasa Cove just recently, provided us boatman contact.  The same boatman guided them and provided everything for them while in Nagsasa excluding land transportation going to Zambales.  Since we prefer convenience, its a good thing that the boatman also has contacts for van rentals.  For an all in package, which includes van and boat transfer, tent, cooking equipment, utensils, mineral water, entrance fees, cottages, and island hopping, the charge was Php 1,550 per person good for 10 pax.  At the last minute, we were only 9 pax so the charge was Php 1,600.  Food was not included.   

The van is supposed to pick us up in Makati at 1am but for some reason he requested it to be at 3am.  I declined and said that it's too late already.  We agreed at 2am.  I asked again the reason for change in schedule but he didn't respond.  He arrived in Makati a bit late, 15 minutes late.  The van was big, I think that was Nissan Urvan, with cool A/C.  It can accommodate up to 18 passengers including the driver.  So for us 9 pax, it was a comfortable seating.  By the way, picking up of other people along the way is not allowed.  The driver said that there should only be one pick up and drop off point.

The travel time took 4 hours.  But I believe it should have been shortened if we opted to to take the SCTEX  route instead of San Fernando exit.  I no longer asked the driver why but I guess they're avoiding the high toll fees.  During the trip, we had 2 stop overs, one at SBMA then the other one at San Antonio where we will do marketing to buy foods to cook.  We encountered traffic somewhere in Olongapo due to fiesta preparation.  But good thing our driver asked around for a short cut or other routes to avoid the queue of trucks and other vehicles.  We arrived in San Antonio around 6 am already and the wet market is already opened (it is said to be opened by 5:30am).  We arrived at the "port" of Pundaquit by 7am.  It is not actually port but that was the tail end for land transportation.  There, we were greeted by our boatman, Marvin.  He then introduced us to the boatmen who will take us to Nagsasa Cove and who will assist us in all our preparation needs.  Marvin gave us an option on the island hopping.  He said, we can already visit Anawangin Cove before heading to Nagsasa then on the next day, that's where we will visit Capones island.  Another option is to directly head to Nagsasa Cove in day 1 and take the island hopping on the second day.  We preferred the second option.  I believe most of us were all excited to see and relax at Nagsasa Cove.

Below is the contact details of our boatman, Marvin and the van c/o Jeremy:

Marvin (boatman) - 0927.7594714
Jeremy (van) - 0906.2741883

Again our contacts for the van was also care of Marvin.  Read my next blog where I relate the beauty of Nagsasa Cove.